News Releases

• U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to participate in the ceremony
• The Reverend Joseph Lowery to be keynote speaker, Mayor Shirley Franklin to bring remarks

ATLANTA, March 20, 2009 – She is best known for breaking down the barriers of segregation and standing up to the defiant Alabama Governor George Wallace. Now, Morehouse College pays tribute to civil rights icon Vivian Malone Jones by placing her image among the dozens of others in the Hall of Honor.

The College will unveil a special portrait of Jones during its Crown Forum on Thursday, March 26 at 11am.

Jones, who died in 2005, was the former director of civil rights and urban affairs and director of environmental justice for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She is best remembered as one of two black students who enrolled at the University of Alabama in 1963 while a defiant Wallace tried to stop them by standing in the doorway. She was the first African American to graduate from the University of Alabama in 1965.

The portrait unveiling comes just after the College announced the establishment of the Vivian Malone Jones Lecture Series. The lecture, which has been endowed by Jones’ family, is designed to preserve her legacy and to inspire college students to engage in a global non-violent social movement for change. Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin was the inaugural keynote speaker for the series opening during the Martin Luther King Jr. Crown Forum in January.

The Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery, another powerful force in the civil rights movement, will be the keynote speaker for the event on Thursday. U.S. Attorney General and Jones’ brother-in-law Eric Holder will participate in the unveiling ceremony.

WHERE: Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel
(on the campus of Morehouse College)

Media parking will be available on Lee Lane, located directly across from King Chapel

Recognized as one of the top feeder schools to the 15 most prominent graduate and professional programs in the nation by The Wall Street Journal, called ³One of the best Southeastern colleges² by The Princeton Review and ranked "America¹s Hottest College for Men" by Kaplan-Newsweek, Morehouse College is the nation¹s largest, private liberal arts college for men. The College offers 26 majors in three academic divisions: Humanities and Social Sciences, Science and Mathematics, and Business Administration and Economics. Morehouse offers a number of programs and activities to enhance its challenging liberal arts curriculum through the Leadership Center at Morehouse College, Morehouse Research Institute, Andrew Young Center for International Affairs and the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel.
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